Day 244 – Friday Night Drunk Shooting

Well, not drunk exactly. A tad tipsy. A bit more than a glass of wine in me and I headed out to the backyard with camera in hand. Nina was a whirling dervish – “Whee! It’s Friday! Mom’s in the backyard!”

So no luck there.

But Buddy…ah my boy! Such a handsome boy!

Hey, 2/3 down, 1/3 to go. Emilio, did I get my math right?

Day 243 – Dappled

I took a walk late this afternoon around the grounds and I was fascinated by the dapple of sun and shadow on the pine cones strewn across the ground.

Day 242 – Yesterday was a bust

Busy – from before dawn until the time I went to bed. Didn’t even get to pull my camera from the bag. So, I have to pull something from another day.

I took this a couple of days ago . . . Nina farting around in the backyard, hoping to find a lizard under the roll of chicken wire.

And here is another one of the still life photos I shot the other night. I created shadow by holding a board above the light and using it to block light falling on the foreground. I like what the pepper is doing in the stem of the wine glass.

Day 241 – Still Life with Peppers

Practice, practice, practice!

UPDATE:

Set up for first two: Soft box to camera left at a 45º angle. About 5 feet in the air, angled down slightly. Reflector card to right of peppers.

Third shot: same but dropped soft box a couple of feet. You can see the change in direction.

Set up for wine glass shot: Moved soft box light so light reflected off backdrop through wine glass. White reflector card held above and to right of objects for fill.

White continuous backdrop (which is a window shade, $11 at Walmart) for all.

Also, I’ve started a Still Life gallery at SmugMug which will give you all the details on ISO, aperture and shutter speed.

Capture the Colour

I’ve been nominated for the Capture the Colour contest and I thought this might be fun, so here goes! According to the “rules” of the contest, I’m supposed to show a place with color, so while I have lots of photos of flowers and greenery, etc that would work color-wise, travel shots were a bit harder to come by.

Blue – What could be bluer than Lake Tahoe? This was taken on May 18, 2012 – our anniversary! What a beautiful place. The sun was setting as we headed out to the MS Dixie for a dinner cruise around the lake.

Green– One of northern Nevada’s best kept secrets: Spooner Lake. Whenever Sweetie and I want to get away from it all and take a peaceful, gentle hike, we grab the dogs and head on up to Spooner. It is telling that it was the first place we escaped to after the Reno Air Races crash.

Yellow – Sunset over Jack London Square, Oakland, CA. Sweetie and I were in town to participate in the Congenital Heart Walk the next day, but first we had a very romantic evening the night before.

White – One hopes one never needs a hospital in their travels, but this is an entryway I’ve become far too familiar with over the last few months. Torrance Memorial Hospital in Torrance, CA.

On a brighter note . . . No, I’ve never been to the moon, but I can imagine!

Red – California Adventure, Anaheim, CA – the next-door neighbor to Disneyland. My daughter and I have many fond memories of going to Disneyland when she was small, and she and I are Disneyland fanatics. So in October 2010 we did it again, just the two of us. A long day of driving from northern Nevada got us into Anaheim at about 4pm. A quick dinner and we headed over to California Adventure for the evening. This Ferris Wheel is awesome – with cages that slide back and forth on rails that give the rider a crazy ride. I screamed like a little girl!

I’m pretty late to this party, and the rules say I’m supposed to nominate five bloggers to participate. Likely they’ve all been nominated by someone else. Old college try and all that.

Emilio at Disperser Tracks

Maralee at Through My Lens

Nia at Photography of Nia

Inga at Ingaphotography

Mike at Mike’s Look at Life